Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Stanley Cup Finals -- Game 2

Okay, I'm no longer depressed. Losing Roli is a huge blow, considering the way Conkkanen has performed this season, but it isn't the end of the ride for this team. The fact is, Roli wasn't looking his dynamite self the last two games, and there were occassions -- short occassions -- where both Ty and Jussi got on rolls and won a few in a row. Right? Right? [nervous laugh].

The real danger, as I see it, is that the Oilers played different in front of these guys than in front of Roli. For most of the season, Edmonton led the league with the lowest shots against. As soon as Roli came, they started allowing all kinds of shots. This shift was not coincidental. With Conkkanen in net, it just seemed like the skaters were so petrified that the goalies would let in a weak goal or four, that they just decided to not let anyone shoot it on net. Great, except it seemed to kill our momentum going forward. Let's hope they can find some happy medium.

Obviously I'd go with Jussi, but who knows what Mac-T is thinking. I sure hope he doesn't take this "perfect teaching opportunity" and put Conks back in.

I still think the Oilers can pull this thing out. Ward, despite his spectacular saves on Horc, looked average at best. He gives out huge rebounds -- and lots of them -- and his save % was again below .900. Hemsky just walked around the D, and he wasn't the only one. When Hemsky actually takes it to the net rather than going around it, you know the D must have given him a ridiculous amount of room. Nay, friends, this series is far from over.

In fact, I have further proof. We have already discussed how it took exactly 99 games for the Oilers to get to this year's Finals. We talked about how Horcoff was selected 99th by the Oilers. Well, today, after 14.5 years of university, I convocate. On my official degree it says:

"Given at This University on the Seventh Day of June, Two Thousand and Six in the Ninety-Ninth Year of the University of Alberta."

Are we going to see Tarnstrom? Bergeron got off too easy with all the hype surrounding the Ladd hit into Roli. That took away from his horrible play during the rest of the game. He was brutal, and Carolina knew it, and they exploited it. I hope we don't see him tonight, but I think we will because if he doesn't play everyone will consider it a benching for taking out the goalie.

I had an email exchange during the DET series with a noted Oiler fan and Cory Cross non-lover, where I said, "I'd love to see Cross get in and score the winning goal, if only for the Jim Matheson column afterwards."

His response was, "There's only one problem with your scenario: it involves Cory Cross playing well for a duration of up to one second."

I admire and respect your faith. i really do. if it was my team going into the final with the seive that walks like a man as my goalie, I'd be cautiously confident, too. But ....

[reality check]

Cinderella only gets to the ball when all 20 guys on the ice play above their heads. Rollo gave the Oilers that for three series. But Juicy and Tie have to play at a level they've never ever approached to equal that.

Cam Ward does not get enough respect around here. His save % was diluted a little bit by a penalty shot, and the three others that got by him were unstoppable. Every other shot that could be stopped, was stopped.

Nor do the Canes get enough respect. Sure, Montreal and Buffalo had some injuries, but what about New Jersey? The Devils were a popular pre-playoff pick to win it all and had a 15 game winning streak before the Canes disemboweled them in 5. This is the best Canes team since the Howes played for them and are without question (despite other commenters views to the contrary) the best team the Oil have faced thus far.

Conversely, the 8th seeded Oilers are the weakest opponent the Canes have had (I know, Montreal blah blah, but that is another team that got good once it figured out its goaltending and was better than its regular season record showed.)